The day after two of his deputies were shot and killed trying to serve a warrant, Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens said his department remains heartbroken by the tragedy.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Owens identified the two slain deputies as Jonathan Koleski, 42, and Marshall Ervin Jr., 38, the latter of whom was the father of two children.
Their identities were revealed after two suspects arrested at a West Cobb home following a standoff with law enforcement had their first hearings in Cobb Magistrate Court.
Christopher Golden, 30, is being held without bond after being charged Friday with two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
Christopher Cook 32, has been charged with eight counts of theft. He also is being denied bond after his original bail was set at $1.230.
They were apprehended late Thursday night after the deputies attempted to serve Cook a warrant for failing to appear on a theft by deception charge.
Instead, Golden emerged from the home on Hampton Glen Court, in the Cheatham Hill area, and fired on the deputies, according to police.
“This has broken the hearts of my deputies,” Owens said at the press conference at the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, which was attended by various law enforcement officials and Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
“It hurts all of us.”
He said he’s spoken with the wives of both deputies, and pleaded with the media to give the families “the personal space they need” to grieve.
Cobb Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer, whose department is leading the investigation, provided limited details about the shootings, both because the evidence is still forthcoming, and out of fairness.
He said that at 7:45 p.m. Thursday, Koleski and Ervin were attempting to serve a warrant and take Cook into custody in the driveway.
VanHoozer said Golden came out of the house with a weapon and was given “clear” verbal commands to drop it, but did not. Gunfire was exchanged between Golden and the deputies, both of whom, VanHoozer said, “succumbed to their wounds.”
VanHoozer said there were no other people in the home during the incident. He did not provide a description of the weapon used to shoot the deputies.
Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady issued a statement saying that “We extend our sincere condolences and prayers to the families of the two sheriff’s deputies killed in the line of duty, the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, and the Cobb law enforcement community.”
But he refrained from further comment due to the pending investigation.
An individual named Stacy Cook is listed in Cobb tax records as the owner of the home, and Golden is listed in jail records as living at the same address.
According to court records, Cook was sentenced in 2015 to 10 years probation after pleading guilty to burglary and theft charges that were pressed in 2012.
VanHoozer declined to comment on previous incidents when asked by a reporter.
Law enforcement officers, VanHoozer added, “do this job knowing that they may have to give their lives for this job.”
They do it “to seek justice and to prevent incidents like this from happening.”
VanHoozer and Owens thanked not only other law enforcement agencies for their support, but also from citizens in the larger Cobb community and throughout the country.
“What we saw was not just a law enforcement community come together, but we saw the community come together,” VanHoozer said, noting such responses at the shooting scene and when he later went to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.
“The sense of gratitude we saw from the community was amazing,” VanHoozer said.
Koleski joined the Cobb Sheriff’s Office in 2007, and Ervin in 2012.
According to the Officers Down Memorial Page, the Cobb Sheriff’s Office has had only one officer killed in the line of duty previously. That was Deputy Donald Terry Garrison, who died on Aug. 27, 1990 when his patrol car was struck by a speeding vehicle.
The Cobb Sheriff’s Foundation, a non-profit organization founded last year that serves Sheriff’s Office personnel and their families, has set up a donate button for its Fallen Officer Fund on its website.
“The funds that we will get will go to those families,” Foundation founder and executive director Robert Haley said at the press conference.
That includes setting up a scholarship fund for Ervin’s children, but also direct and immediate resources, including attorneys’ services.
“We are prepared to provide them with funding right now for their immediate needs,” Haley said. “We are ready to respond to this terrible, terrible tragedy.”
Related:
- 3 charged at Chattahoochee NRA Sope Creek after car break-ins
- 2 Cobb sheriff’s deputies killed serving warrant; 2 arrested
- East Cobb man sentenced for child sexual exploitation
- 3 teens charged with arson in Chimney Lakes gazebo fire
- East Cobb suspect arrested following wave of home burglaries
- New Cobb Police Chief ‘humbled’ by appointment
- East Cobb man sentenced in fatal Sandy Plains Road crash
- Ex-business partner of murdered East Cobb man gets 20 years
- East Cobb man sentenced to two life terms for child molestations
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